Flipkart, Amazon, others to display MRP, expiry date of products

E-commerce players like Flipkart, Amazon and eBay will have to display maximum retail price (MRP), expiry date and other important details about the products up for sale on their sites, starting Monday. This is expected to assuage buyers’ concern that e-sellers might be inflating prices much above the MRP and then offering steep discounts, pocketing handsome gains in the process.

Earlier this year, the Department of Consumer Affairs had amended the Packaged Commodity Rules, 2011, and issued a notification under which sellers on all e-commerce sites would have to disclose the actual MRP of the product January 1 onwards. The e-commerce sites were given a six-month window to comply with the order.

Source: Amazon.in website.

On amazon.in, some products were seen to be listed with MRP, while most others were not yet doing so as of Monday morning. Some like Flipkart, Myntra and Jabong had not started displaying products’ MRP.

Source: Flipkart website.

\According to a LocalCirlces survey, as of December 31, most e-commerce websites had failed to comply with the norm.
LocalCircles said that over 42% consumers had reported products being listed for a much higher price on ecommerce sites than their actual price in the market.Flipkart is running a ‘deals of the day offer’ which will end at 12 pm. It is possible that the website starts showing MRPs after the deal ends.

“Feedback from users suggested that only 10 to 12 per cent of the products on e-commerce sites were now showing MRP as they were being stocked by the e-commerce sites themselves,” a LocalCircles statement said.

Source: Amazon website.

The ministry’s order had also mandated that all human consumption products (food, medicines, cosmetics, contact lenses) listed on e-commerce sites must also display expiry dates so the consumer could make an informed decision.

Source: Flipkart.com website

Many consumers had earlier reported receiving from e-commerce sites products with only 30-60 days of remaining shelf life, and expressed their helplessness as they could not consumer these within the period. They were also dismayed by the fact that the return policy on such items is quite stringent.